Dressed to impress

Towering headdresses, 3ft-high feathers and a diamond-spangled skirt so heavy that a pulley was needed to raise the hem are only some of the extraordinary outfits that made Georgian Britain sartorially magnificent,

-  Matthew Dennison

HARD-DRINKING and high born, the irate courtier was in no mood to mince her words in the winter of 1714. In Britain, she explained to the Countess of Buckeburg—favourite ladyin-waiting of the new German Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach—noblewomen showed their quality ‘by Birth and Titles, and not by sticking out their Bosoms’. The Countess duly reported back to her mistress. Neither princess nor lady-in-waiting, however, ever fully reviewed their first impression that ‘English Women made themselves look… always in a Fright, whereas those that are Foreigners hold up their Heads and hold out their Breasts, and make themselves look as great and stately as they can’.